Between the mandatory disc installs, increasing popularity of downloadable games and content, and title updates that can balloon into the gigabytes, you may find the stock hard drive of your PlayStation 4 filling up fast. Instead of constantly choosing which of your old games you keep installed, you may want to consider a hardware upgrade instead. Not only is swapping in a bigger hard drive a cinch, it can also provide your system with a modest speed boost.

The Right Drive For The JobYour first task in replacing your PS4 hard drive is – surprise! – choosing a hard drive to replace it with. Sony designed the PlayStation 4 to be compatible with most internal laptop hard drives, so finding a suitable replacement shouldn't be a problem. Here are the main requirements you need to be aware of:

1. It must be a 2.5" internal hard drive, and no taller than 9.5 millimeters.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate comes out this Friday, and lots of fans are curious whether the series' latest installment is up to snuff. Take a look as Kato, Kyle, and Brian discuss the game's systems, compare it to past titles, and get in a spot of bother.

This Test Chamber's footage takes place in the first quarter of the game, but after the introductory sequences with the whole of London opened up. Progression in the game is somewhat gated, so you'll have to become a hardened assassin to cut through Crawford Starrick's Templar web.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate comes out October 23 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For more on the game, check out our hopes and fears for the upcoming title.

The Game Informer editorial staff has been playing a ton of Super Mario Maker since it launched on September 11. While we've been posting our codes on our social media accounts, we wanted to give our community a single place they could go to find our levels.

To search for these courses, you must first be in Super Mario Maker's Course World. From there, find the magnifying glass under "Courses" and then enter the 16-digit code for the level you want to play.

This list will be continually updated as more editors begin feeling confident enough to publish their stages and share them with the world, so be sure to bookmark this page! In the meantime, check out the stages the editors have already published and let everyone know which ones are your favorites in the comments section!

Thanks to its improved online experience, attractive price point, and slight edge in hardware performance, the PlayStation 4 came out of the gates at a full sprint, putting itself well ahead of the rival Xbox One in the latest console race. But despite its lengthy list of improvements over the troubled PlayStation 3, not all is well with the console.

After spending the last couple years using the PS4 as my predominant console for third-party games (still waiting on that deluge of promising first-party content, Sony!), I keep returning to three major gripes. Instead of living with the problems, I'm being pro-active about formulating solutions with some savvy purchasing decisions.

The word “mafia” naturally conjures up images of bootleggers in zoot suits firing tommy guns. The mob had a field day with prohibition, but organized crime has never been isolated to a single time period. For Mafia III, Hangar 13 turned to one of America’s stormiest years for inspiration.

The Mafia games have always told strong stories, and the studio wanted to honor fans’ expectations by setting the third entry within the same fictional world as 2K Czech’s previous work. While referencing events and characters from the series' past was a part of the plan, the team also felt it was time to move away from the common gangster eras of the ‘20s, ‘30s, and ‘40s. “To us, the word ‘mafia’ doesn’t just mean the Italian Mafia,” says lead writer William Harms. “There was also the black mob, there’s the Irish gangs, there’s a lot of different forms of organized crime, so we're really trying to expand the definition of mafia to include things outside of the traditional Mafia and incorporate them into the game.”

With Until Dawn, Supermassive has abandoned the Move-based gimmickry of its previous work in favor of a teen-horror adventure laden with life-or-death choices. We talked with creative director Will Byles about the game's major development challenges, twist-filled narrative, and what's next for the up-and-coming studio.

Until Dawn didn't have a ton of buzz going into release, but the positive critical and user reviews have some calling it a sleeper hit of 2015. How have initial sales been?We've been blown away by the community's reception of the game but cannot comment on sales numbers. [Editor's note: Until Dawn was the seventh best-selling game (not including digital sales) in August, according to NPD.]

Thirty years ago, a small team based in Kyoto, Japan, came together to create a new kind of action game. Drawing inspiration from prior projects, that team released Super Mario Bros. in 1985 – a title that would go on to help console gaming step back from the brink of ruin. Since then, Mario’s influence has spread far beyond the games in which he appears. He helped turn Nintendo into an industry leader, and became a cultural icon. Super Mario Bros. started a revolution, and in the process, became one of the most recognizable franchises in the world.

We originally published this article in issue 271 of Game Informer magazine. We're sharing the story today online in honor of the 30th anniversary of the NES launch in the United States, which occurred on October 18, 1985.

The PC and console gaming communities aren’t as far apart as they once were. While there are some experiences you can only get on one platform or the other, this year we’ve seen many talked-about PC games migrate over to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This list highlights five titles that got a lot of buzz surrounding their original releases, and are now available (or will be soon) to a brand new audience on consoles.

Goat Simulator PC Release: April 1, 2014 New Release: April 17, 2015 (Xbox One); August 11, 2015 (PS4) Game Informer’s Original Score: 5/10 “I don’t completely regret playing Goat Simulator, but I also don’t recommend it to anyone looking for more than disposable entertainment involving goats making people fall down and blowing up gas stations. I appreciate that Coffee Stain Studios is in on the joke, but acknowledging a game is bad doesn't suddenly make it good.” — Tim Turi (full review)

Here's a round-up of the video game-themed Halloween costumes we recommend you avoid for parties or trick-or-treating purposes. If you're thinking "These aren't that bad," just picture yourself wearing one of these costumes, and think about how easy it will be to mingle at parties in them. If the intent of your costume is to look as terrible as possible, this is the list for you!

If you're looking for outfits that do a better job of celebrating what we love about video games, we've compiled a list of this year's best costumes for sale.

Halloween is just a few weeks away. If you don't have the time or skill to create your own Halloween costume that celebrates your love of video games, we've rounded up the best selection of costumes sold at retailers. The selection offers everything from a $900 Master Chief costume to the unexpected Ratchet & Clank outfit. We even gathered a few costumes that toddlers and infants can wear for trick-or-treating purposes.